Question

Suppose the United States is currently producing

20

tons of hamburgers and

9

tons of tacos and Mexico is currently producing

2

tons of hamburgers and

5

tons of tacos. If the United States and Mexico each specialize in producing only one good​ (the good for which each has a comparative​ advantage), then a total of

8

additional​ ton(s) of hamburgers can be produced for the two countries combined ​(enter a numeric response using an​ integer) and a total of

nothing

additional​ ton(s) of tacos can be produced.

Answer 1

Assuming each of the countries utilizing exactly half of their factor of production to Hamburger and Taco's so, Opportunity cost of producing Hamburger in terms of Taco's for US=9/20=0.45 Taco per hamburger,For Taco's opportunity cost=20/9=2.22 Hamburger

Similarly, Mexico's Hamburger opportunity cost=5/2=2.5 Taco and for Taco=2/5=0.4 Hamburger so, since US has lower opportunity cost for Hamburger (0.45 Taco against Mexico's 2.5) it has comparative advantage in Hmburger and similarly Mexico in Taco

Total Hamburger output if US only produce hamburger=20+9*20/9=40 Hamburger

Total Taco=5+2*5/2=10 Taco

So Hamburger output increases by 40-20-2=18 hamburger and Taco output changes by 10-5-9=-4 Taco